India’s infrastructure major Adani Group had announced yesterday that it has cancelled a $2.6 billion dollar contract with Australian mining services company Downer, just days after the Queensland government vetoed a concessional loan to the company for Carmichael coal mine.

In a setback to India’s energy giant Adani, the newly- elected Queensland government last week vetoed a plan to give a 900-million dollar concessional loan for the construction of a rail line in the controversy-hit Carmichael coal mine project in Australia. Notably, the split comes after Downer was the target of a nationwide activist campaign pressuring them to quit the 16.5 billion dollar project in central Queensland, according to media reports.

According to PTI reports, the Adani group had applied for the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) loan worth 900 million dollars for building the 388-km rail line to connect the major coal mine to the sea port. The Adani group entered Australia in 2010 with the purchase of the greenfield Carmichael coal mine in the Galilee Basin in central Queensland, and the Abbot Point port near Bowen in the north. We take a look at why Adani cancelled such a major contract. Read More…